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Are You Struggling to Keep Employees Engaged? Try These 3 Tips!

Engaged employees are happy to come in each morning. They feel good about the company they work for, feel inspired to do a good job and want to contribute. Engaged staff members are also more prone to innovate, deliver good customer services and advocate for your company, both online and in-person.

The best part about engaging employees is that it doesn’t have to cost all that much. At its most basic, employee engagement is a deliberate attempt to speak to employees’ wants and needs beyond a paycheck.

If your company is currently struggling to engage its staff members, consider the following tips.

Look in the Mirror

Any attempt to boost employee engagement should start with management taking a hard look in the mirror. First and foremost, self-reflection should start by determining if management is truly engaged. Are executives and managers passionate about what they do? Or are they always lounging around, avoiding work and taking afternoons off to play golf?

Company management must practice what they preach when it comes to engagement. If employees are regularly asked to work overtime, managers need to be right there with them. If managers are feeling bored, they need to inject some fun into their job and the jobs of their team members.

Also, mangers need to avoid motivating employees out of fear. Employees who are only motivated by the fear of losing their job will do just enough to keep their job, and nothing more.

Boost Employee Input

Employees tend to get much more involved at work if they feel they have a voice. The more decision making is put in the hands of those who are impacted by the decisions, the more invested they will be in the outcome. For instance, employees will be more motivated by incentives they have selected. On the other hand, if cutbacks need to be made or overtime assigned, letting employees have a say gives them a greater sense of control during tough times.

It’s also important to ask feedback. In addition to engaging employees, this is an effective means to make the most of employees’ talents.

Feedback should always be acted upon. If feedback is ignored, staff members will become cynical and suspicious. Unless you are genuine and truly curious about staff input and want to use feedback, you’re better off not even asking for it.

If the feedback is useful and actionable, something should be done as soon as possible. If feedback is not actionable, employees still deserve an explanation why it can’t be used. Employees must feel they have been heard and their feedback was given serious consideration.

Prioritize Transparency

If employees are kept in the dark, they will make up their own reality and it probably won’t be a good one. Rather than avoiding, minimizing or trying to cover up bad news, tell the truth and trust your employees staff will understand. Not being transparent will only foster doubt, suspicion and worry.

Looking for more information?

At Cornerstone Staffing Solutions, we support company leaders through custom staffing solutions and service. Please contact us today to find out how we can help your company achieve its goals.